Occipital lobe damage
Do you want to know about occipital lobe injuries?
Do you know the complications of occipital lobe injury?
Are you familiar with the manifestations of posterior lobe injuries?
Do you know the symptoms of occipital injury?
To find the answers to your questions, you can read more. In the following, we want to refer to the functions of the occipital lobe, as well as the signs of damage to it.
Introduction
It is said that the human brain in each hemisphere consists of four areas or lobes, meaning that each hemisphere of our brain has four different lobes.
The brain is part of the central nervous system, or CNS, which runs along the spinal cord. Of all the parts of the brain, the largest part of the brain is the cerebrum, which consists of four lobes in each hemisphere.
In each cerebral hemisphere there are four lobes as follows:
- Frontal lobe or anterior lobe
- Parietal lobe
- Occipital lobe
- Temporal lobe of each of these parts, they have various roles and tasks. In fact, these lobes have different functions, such as:
• Thinking
• Our reactions to environmental stimuli and behaviors and thinking and perception
• Our processing and understanding of what we see and what we hear
All of this is managed by the brain lobes
Each of these parts that are damaged can cause changes in our behavior and thinking according to their institutional functions. In this article, we want to first introduce and briefly review the functions of each of the brain lobes and then in detail about the function of the occipital lobe. Or talk about the occipital lobe as well as the occipital lobe injuries and the manifestations caused by its injury.
What is the meaning of brain lobe?
In the introduction you read that the largest part of the brain is called the cerebrum, and has right and left hemispheres that are symmetrically facing each other. Each of these hemispheres has four lobes called the frontal lobe of the temporal lobe or the temporal lobe of the parietal lobe or parietal lobe and occipital lobe of cerebrum, it is interesting that why we call this lobes in this way.
The name of each lobe is based on the bones that are close to these parts and support the brain in that area. The borders of these lobes are where the different parts of the skull bone are connected.
Each of these lobes has its own specific functions. When each of these lobes is damaged, Neurocognitive-behavioral disorders occur in proportion to that lobe.
A brief introduction to the brain lobes is also called a brief introduction to the brain lobes, the frontal lobe or the anterior lobe.
It is the center of cognitive thinking and in fact the overall structure of our personality depends on this lobe. This lobe reaches a clear level of maturity at the age of 25.
The frontal lobe undergoes significant cognitive development around the age of twenty-five. The frontal lobe has two parts, the front and the back, and will be separated from the parietal lobe by a groove called the central groove.
The front of our frontal lobe is responsible for controlling and managing cognition, and our cognitive functions and the area behind the frontal lobe consist of motor and pre-motor areas that are responsible for our voluntary movements.
In the following learn more about the functions of the frontal lobe:
Cognitive personality planning and reasoning, behavior management, thought management, sexual desire management
Ability to solve problems, Power of judgments, Feelings Motor skills and speech organization
Certainly damage to the frontal lobe can be caused by drastic changes in speech habits
Decreased libido or the development of certain new sexual habits
Decreased risk-taking abilities of individuals
Internal motivation problem
Decreased mental adaptability as well as increased distraction and hypersensitivity to the environment
Also, problems in the sense of taste and smell, as well as the loss of these two senses can be among the complications of forehead injury.
The area behind the central groove above the occipital lobe is where the optic nerves reach the posterior lobe. Other functions of the frontal lobe are to integrate and coordinate sensory information that reaches the brain from different parts of the body.
Other functions of our orientations and our position in the space around us when speaking and moving are the recognition of visual perceptions and the perception of pain and touch of the perception of stimuli. If the forehead is damaged first, the spatial processing and body image in the environment will be severely disrupted in our minds.
There are several types of forehead lobe injuries that are beyond the scope of this article.
Temporal lobe:
It is almost on a par with our ears
The temporal lobes are actually the main auditory centers in the brain, so it is responsible for processing all the audio data in the temporal lobes.
One of the anatomical parts of this area is called the hippocampus and is responsible for commanding long-term memory.
Storing new information also depends on this part.
It should also be noted that the right temporal lobe will manage visual memory and the left lobe will manage verbal memory.
So temporal briefly plays a role in auditory speech responsibilities as well as memory.
In injuries to the temporal lobe of the brain, the symptoms will vary depending on whether the injury is in the left or right lobe.
For example, if the left temporal lobe is damaged, we will not be able to recognize words, and we will not be able to memorize words. We will have impaired ability to recognize words and memorize words.
If the right temporal lobe is damaged, we will not be able to recognize the contents of the image as well as the sequence of sounds we hear.
Injuries to the right side also interfere with recalling music, drawings, and previous roles that one has heard and seen.
But let's turn to the main topic of this article is the occipital lobe and the functions of the occipital lobe and the complications caused by injuries to the occipital lobe. The occipital or occipital lobe is actually the posterior part that is located inside the skull in our two hemispheres of the brain. It is actually the smallest lobe of the brain. We consider the occipital to be the main cortex of vision, and in fact the greatest responsibility for our visual perception lies with this lobe.
What are the functions of the occipital lobe?
These tasks are as follows:
• Visual perception
• Color recognition
• Recognize movements in our environment
• Also perform spatial visual processing
In short, the disorder in this lobe can lead to visual hallucinations or visual delusion.
Injuries to the occipital lobe due to the anatomical position of this lobe in our skull.
It is in a safer position than injuries and traumas, and if it is damaged, it leads to disorders of the visual perception system as well as complete or incomplete vision.
Another point is that occipital lobe injuries sometimes cause visual hallucinations.
The factors that cause various lesions of the occipital lobe are not only physical, in other words, the only factor that changes the function of the brain is not physical damage, and there are different diseases, drugs and disorders that can affect different parts of the brain.
Sometimes psychiatric illnesses and problems also work with changes in the secretion of neurotransmitters in the brain, affecting many lobes of the brain.
There are exercises for mental exercise in order to increase the brain's capabilities. We must say that the brain, in addition to needing physical care of the tissue, needs the same amount of mental care. Without psychological care, the degeneration of different parts of the brain will definitely be possible.
The anatomy of the occipital lobe with the occiput between the four pairs of cerebral lobes is actually the smallest lobe.
It is located in the back of the skull and is actually part of the human dorsal brain and is adjacent to the occipital bone of the skull.
The occipital lobe is located on the cerebellum.
There are different grooves in the occipital lobe and this small lobe divides into different parts.
If the areas of the above parts that manage and control our vision are damaged, they can cause complete or partial blindness.
What are the functions of the occipital lobe?
We can not say that it has a special and unique function because all parts of the brain must work in harmony with each other. In fact, it is better to say that the process that is best done by the occipital lobe is the processing of visual information.
Part of the occipital lobe of the "primary visual cortex" of the V1 section actually processes visual information and is responsible for recognizing general patterns.
In this way, the information received is collected from the eye.
This data received in the V1 section of the occipital lobe is generally inaccurate and will then be sent to other parts of the occipital lobe, where other parts are responsible for processing and analyzing visual information.
Each of the components that actually processed the transmitted raw data will send the analyzed information to other areas of the brain according to their quality.
Different occipital lobe pathways
When the information is separated from the primary visual cortex of the V1, which we said exists in the occipital lobe, it must continue in two different directions.
Abdominal and back path. Now let's see what each path has.
Abdominal occipital tract
It starts from the primary visual cortex, or V1, and extends from the v4 v2 parts to the forehead area of the brain, which contains the visual membrane, which contains the visual cortex, which is responsible for processing the details of isolated data and also affects the visual content. The dorsal pathway passes from the occipital region to the frontal region of the cerebral cortex through the main neural networks near the top of the skull. Information is transmitted to the v3 and v5 nerves.
It is said that this path is responsible for creating information about the location and movement of what our eyes have seen and transmitted, which is why the back path is sometimes called the "where" and "how" path.
The opposite is the path of the abdomen, which is responsible for processing the characteristics of the elements that are observed at any time.
Specifies our visual content , This path is called "what".
The connection between epilepsy
It is said that the occipital lobe may play an important role in causing epileptic seizures, or at least some types of epilepsy.
Excessive and flashing light exposure causes patterns of electrical signals emitted by brain neurons that spread throughout the brain, causing epilepsy.
Due to the vast complexity of the brain and the speed at which neurons work, little is known about the mechanism of this type of seizure, But it is assumed that some external visual stimuli cause them to focus on them and affect epilepsy in some parts of the brain, including the temporal lobe, in the same way that they affect the occiput.
Favorable biological as well as genetic conditions are required for the occurrence of these occipital epilepsies.
What does the occipital lobe do?
If you have read the above, we must briefly describe the functions of the occipital lobe.
Although processing the collected data and sending it from the retina to the brain is probably not the only function of the occipital lobe, it is actually done by a certain cortex, and for this reason we believe that the main function of the capital is related to data interactions from the eye reaches to the brain.
One of the unique features of this lobe is that it is the beginning of two parallel information processing paths, so it tells us in general how the perceptual phenomenon of vision is processed.
That means, from a dorsal path that perceives the motion of the position and location of the phenomenon, and from the abdominal path, which is related to the recognition of what we have seen, that means, the integration of small image fragments into large units that we can perceive and identify.
Symptoms of clinical manifestations of occipital lobe injury
When an injury occurs to the back of the head, it can cause the following symptoms, the person may:
1. Suffering from disorders
2. Cuts may be made in the visual film
3. Impaired vision around objects and colors
4. Hallucinations
5. Complete blindness of incomplete visual impairment
As well as the inability to recognize words that are written and the person sees and reads and writes them.
Other signs of occipital lobe damage are that a person cannot see moving objects, and his or her ability to process information received by his or her eyesight is greatly reduced, and he or she is unable to recognize and perceive what he or she sees.
The following are the symptoms of occipital injury
- Visual impairment or defects and cuts in the visual field
- Difficulty localizing objects we see in the environment
- OCCIPITAL LOBES: most posterior, at the back of the head
- Defects in vision (Visual Field Cuts).
- Difficulty with locating objects in environment.
- Difficulty with identifying colors (Color Agnosia).
- Production of hallucinations.
- Visual illusions – inaccurately seeing objects.
- Word blindness – inability to recognize words.
- Difficulty in recognizing drawn objects.
- Inability to recognize the movement of object (Movement Agnosia).
- Difficulties with reading and writing.
- Reduced peripheral vision.
- Difficulty in recognizing agnosia colors or colors
- Visual hallucinations
- Visual delusions
- A condition called vocabulary blindness means the inability to recognize the words he/she writes, sees or reads.
- word blindness
The following are some of the common causes of TBI:
- Blow to the head
- Falls
- Rapid acceleration-deceleration (though no direct impact is required, a restrained driver/passenger coming to a sudden halt causes the brain inside the skull to move and hit the skull wall with such force resulting in brain tissue damage)
- Motor vehicle accident
- Sports
- Assault
- Projectile to the head (bullet)
- Head impact with other objects (hammer, etc)
- Concussive forces (explosion shock waves)
What are the causes of occipital lobe damage?
Skull trauma can cause serious damage to the epithelium and other lobes.
Damage caused by car crashes as well as firearms are among the causes of damage.
Treatment
In case of injury, the doctor will choose a treatment for you according to the underlying cause and symptoms, according to the cause of the injury and the type of damage that has been done to this lobe.
Here are two general techniques available to manage occipital injuries.
1. Eye exercises: These exercises involve you, which in fact engages the abilities and power of neuroplasticity and training of neurons, and can help improve your vision.
2. Scanning therapy: This treatment helps patients with a number of visual impairments learn how to adapt to the environment they are seeing.
3. The third treatment is prismatic adaptation